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Your Christmas break might already seem like it happened a long time ago.
January tends to hit different - and drag.
But if you can cast your mind back just a couple of weeks, you may remember your social media feeds were full of something that seems to have become a new precious festive tradition.
And that presents a seasonal comms challenge.
Yes, we are talking about social media posts featuring rotten turkeys, inedible beef and the now annual complaints that some of our biggest retailers have ruined Christmas.
One post that grabbed my attention on X said: “@Tesco Just opened the turkey I ordered & it has MOULD on it & the smell is awful, it's rotten. Thank you for ruining Xmas, I don't have a back up, so it's just stuffing & pigs in blankets for us, if they aren't off too. Never again. Omg the smell is everywhere, need candles.”
I hadn’t realised before that you could smell a social media post.
Another angry post was directed at Sainsbury’s, complaining about the “stench” after opening a “rotten turkey” on Christmas morning. It added “I’m certainly gonna ‘taste the difference’ with this.”
I’m a fan of the ‘taste the difference” line. Anger and humour in the same post.
Another complaint about a Sainsbury’s turkey said: “The pictures really don't portray how bad it smelt once we cut the packaging open.”
Want one more? Here's another complaint about the smell.
Alongside the tales of homes engulfed with the aroma of rotting meat, customers voiced complaints about missing items from orders.
One shopper posted: “@Morrisons Big thank you for ruining Christmas. What's the point of placing a Christmas Food order months in advance only to collect it and find most of it is missing?”
As ever, what gets discussed on social media tends to get picked up by mainstream media.
Here are a few of the stories it created:
Now, I’m not saying this story has become predictable, but compare that top headline to how the Daily Mirror covered the same issue in Christmas 2024: Shoppers fume 'Christmas is ruined' over rotten Tesco, Lidl and Sainsbury's turkeys.
But we digress. The purpose of this blog is to examine how these most recent complaints were addressed.
While there doesn’t appear to have been enough angry posts for this to be considered a time to activate the crisis comms plan, no one wants to be accused of ruining Christmas.
So, they still needed to be handled carefully.
Sainsbury’s said in a statement covered by the Daily Star: “We will be contacting these customers who received a turkey that does not meet our usual high standards to say how sorry we are for this experience and reassure them that we're looking into how this may have happened."
I would have started the statement with the apology.
But it is better than Tesco, which does not appear to have responded to the media coverage. And that is an interesting approach, considering that, as well as the articles we have already highlighted, there are also several regional publications that have run the same turkey grievance stories.
I’m surprised a statement wasn’t issued to assure readers it takes these manky meat stories seriously.
Staying silent is always a risky approach that allows the narrative to grow and for reporters to trawl social media for more complaints from unhappy shoppers to pad out stories.
It did, however, reply to some individual complainants on social media.
A member of its customer care team told one user on X, “I am so sorry this has happened”, and asked them to send a private message.
Not only does the apology sound genuine and natural, but attempting to move the conversation offline is a good crisis comms approach.
However, why not respond to all unhappy customers?
I understand there are fewer people around over Christmas to monitor and respond to these types of complaints.
But you can almost set your watch by the ‘Christmas is ruined’ posts and stories. So, there’s plenty of time to prepare and get plans and draft responses in place.
What can you learn from this for the year ahead?
Well, here are a few tips from our crisis communication and social media training courses.
Respond
Staying quiet isn’t the right approach.
It allows the narrative to grow.
A short statement, like the one issued by Sainsbury’s, would show that Tesco takes complaints seriously and cares about the experience of its customers.
Stories that end with ‘We contacted Tesco for comment’ do not create the same impression.
Meaningful
If you issue an apology, it must feel like you mean it.
Don’t make it seem like a default option you have deployed to try to stop the negative posts.
‘We take this matter extremely seriously’ is a line many organisations fall back on, but its overuse means it doesn’t feel like they are taking it seriously at all.
An apology on social media - like in traditional media - needs to reflect sincerity, honesty and empathy.
Human
Organisations often fall back on corporate language when they are in the firing line.
But that’s about as appealing as some of the rotten meat we’ve just discussed.
Keeping language human and emotive is one of the best ways to show customers you care about what has happened.
Reply to all?
We mentioned that Tesco appears to have replied to some unhappy customers but not all.
It feels like a scattergun approach, which does little to appease those who have been ignored.
Another extreme we often see is brands that respond to everyone.
It’s well-intentioned.
But it typically results in the same response being used repeatedly.
The copy and paste approach might save time.
But it feels bland and robotic and doesn’t suggest the organisation cares about what its customers are saying.
If you want to respond to everyone, social media managers must be empowered to create different variations of the message and put them into their own words.
While that may sound risky, customers prefer the human approach, and it can help turn a negative story into something more positive.
The rule of twice
Even if you do respond to everyone, some people are likely to remain unhappy.
And that means they may continue with their angry posts.
The key is to avoid getting drawn into a long conversation/argument.
It’s where the rule of twice comes in – respond twice to an individual and then withdraw from the discussion.
If a customer continues to criticise after your initial response, try to take the conversation offline by offering to contact them another way (phone call, email, or private message).
This shows your willingness to address the issue and creates a good impression with those watching the conversation online – social media is, after all, often a spectator sport.
Judging by recent history, we’ll be able to revisit this blog in 12 months – I can almost smell the rotten Turkey already.
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